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  • Urban features of the 20th ...
    Gojnik, Zorana Sokol; Gojnik, Igor; Scitaroci, Mladen Obad

    Prostor (Zagreb, Croatia), 06/2016, Letnik: 24, Številka: 1
    Journal Article

    This article examines the urban features of the 20th century liturgical buildings in Zagreb on the basis of the previously established research criteria. This research is the result of field work, the analysis of the existing liturgical buildings in terms of their condition and their position on the Croatian base map. The research results show that the 20th century liturgical buildings in Zagreb ceased to play a role in the formation of the urban fabric as they did in the previous historical periods. In front of them public spaces of predominantly private character have been formed. LITURGICAL ARCHITECTURE URBANISM ZAGREB 20TH CENTURY Clanak govori o urbanistickim obiljezjima liturgijskih gradevina u Zagrebu u 20. stoljecu, a rezultat je istrazivanja provedenog prema prethodno postavljenim kriterijima. Istrazivanje je provedeno na temelju obilaska terena, analize zatecenog stanja i analize smjestaja liturgijskih gradevina na Hrvatskoj osnovnoj karti. Rezultati istrazivanja pokazuju da su liturgijske graoevine u 20. stoljecu u Zagrebu prestale biti gradotvorni element kakav su bile u prethodnim povijesnim razdobljima, te da se pred njima formiraju javni prostori dominantno privatnog karaktera. LITURGIJSKA ARHITEKTURA URBANIZAM ZAGREB 20. STOLJECE This article examines the urban features of the 20th century liturgical buildings in Zagreb. Based on some previously established criteria, it brings forward the results of a field research and the analysis of the existing liturgical buildings in terms of their condition and their position on the Croatian base map. Two criteria were laid down for the analysis of the urban features of the 20th century liturgical buildings in Zagreb. The first one refers to the urban accent in the urban fabric. i.e. a macro-urban aspect which helps to assess the role of the liturgical buildings in building up the image of the city and in highlighting a part of the urban fabric. The second criterion is based on the characteristics of the outdoor spaces in front of the liturgical buildings, i.e. a micro-urban aspect by means of which it is possible to analyze the formation of the public spaces in front of the liturgical buildings. The classification of the liturgical buildings is based on the first criterion. A thorough analysis of all liturgical buildings in Zagreb shows that their contribution to the image of the city and to the articulation of a particular part of urban fabric results from three fundamental components: their position in relation to the main streets, their position on topographically prominent sites, and their position within an impressive part of urban fabric. The liturgical buildings have been analyzed here according to the first criterion. Within this classification further analysis was carried out according to the second criterion which defines the character of the outdoor space in front of the liturgical buildings. The results of the analysis based on the previously established criteria reveals the urban features of the 20th century liturgical buildings in Zagreb. The results of this research confirm that, according to the first criterion, around one-third (34%) of the liturgical buildings built in Zagreb in the 20th century were built on the sites which gave prominence to a particular urban area and thus made a valuable contribution to the image of the city. The majority of these liturgical buildings are situated along the main streets (22%) while some are located on topographically prominent sites (8%) or form an integral part of the urban structures which themselves create the image of the city (4%). By contrast, the results point out the fact that the majority of liturgical buildings built in the 20th century (66%) did not give prominence to the urban area where they were built and thus failed to become a key element in building up the image of the city. Further analysis based on the second criterion indicates that only 42% of liturgical buildings feature an outdoor access of public character which may be subdivided into two types: strong public but poor private character which characterizes 27% of outdoor accesses, and public/private character typical of 15% of public outdoor accesses to liturgical buildings. There is no liturgical building of the 20th century with an access of strong public character as in the case of the access to St Mark's church or the Cathedral in the historic parts of the city. Those liturgical buildings with a dominant public character of the outdoor access were mainly built in the first half of the century when urban plans were typically based on a symbolic concept. By contrast, in the 20th century in Zagreb an outdoor access that is distinctly private has been formed in front of 48% liturgical buildings. The private character of such spaces is manifested as two types: 6% of liturgical buildings feature an outdoor access with a poor public but strong private character while 42% have an outdoor access of a very poor public but exceptionally strong private character. Liturgical buildings with a distinctly private character of their outdoor access were mainly built in the second half of the 20th century when urban plans were characterized by a functional or fragmentary urban-planning concept. 10% of liturgical buildings had no outdoor access. The results of this research confirm that the role of the liturgical buildings in the creation of the image of the city has considerably changed. This is the result of a changed perception of a city in the context of Croatian and 20th century European urbanism as exemplified here by the liturgical buildings of Zagreb. Liturgical buildings built in the early 20th century most commonly gave special prominence to a part of the urban fabric where they were built due to the fact that at the time the city was structured according to hierarchical symbolic significance and in line with the historical formation of the city. However, towards the end of the 20th century, some changes occurred in the perception of a city from an urban-planning perspective: the city started to be seen from a functional and fragmentary perspective. A comprehensive concept of a city vanished in order to be replaced by a functionalist approach. Liturgical buildings as well as other public buildings ceased to play a symbolic role in the fabric of a city. Therefore the majority of liturgical buildings of the period did not bring the urban area where they were built into prominence and thus failed to become a key component in building up the image of the city. Unlike the previous historical periods when liturgical buildings used to be the focus of urban design, most commonly with a square of public character in front of them, the results of this research give evidence of a changing role and significance of the 20th century liturgical buildings now featuring an outdoor space of private character. The squares of exceptionally strong public but poor private character typical of the previous historical periods, are absent throughout the 20th century in Zagreb. Urban outdoor spaces are now mostly characterized by private character.